Wahid

Leaders of parliament decided Thursday that they will not seek a quick end to this country's political crisis but will wait until Aug. 1 to begin hearings on whether to unseat President Abdurrahman Wahid. The decision, which is in keeping with the constitution's slow and cumbersome process for removing a president, gives Wahid additional time to rally support and seek a compromise that would let him remain in power.

President Abdurrahman Wahid suffered a major defeat Wednesday when the parliament he once called a "kindergarten" voted overwhelmingly to push ahead with his ouster. By a vote of 365 to 4, lawmakers decided to convene a special session of Indonesia's highest constitutional body, the People's Consultative Assembly, to decide whether to remove the unpredictable president from office.

Thousands of President Abdurrahman Wahid's supporters rioted in East Java on Tuesday, setting two churches on fire as they protested parliamentary efforts to unseat him. The beleaguered leader's chances of hanging on to power continued to slip away as the political party led by Vice President Megawati Sukarnoputri said it would reject a compromise with Wahid and vote against him today when parliament considers his fate.

When President Abdurrahman Wahid was elected 19 months ago, he represented this country's best chance at democracy in half a century of independence. Now, as he faces corruption allegations and threats of removal from office, it appears that the nearly blind and unpredictable Muslim leader will do almost anything to keep his job.

President Abdurrahman Wahid said Saturday that he has considered declaring martial law to stave off impeachment and urged his popular deputy to accept a power-sharing agreement. He warned that his ouster could trigger the breakup of the nation. With parliament expected to call for his impeachment this week, Wahid acknowledged for the first time that he had discussed the possibility of dissolving the legislature. In comments to reporters, he did not say whether he has now ruled out that approach.

Threats by a nationalist and Islamic alliance to stage vigilante raids and book-burnings have prompted bookstores across the country to pull dozens of leftist titles from their shelves. In the central Java city of Yogyakarta, police have even staged a precautionary sweep and taken books into "protective custody" to prevent raids threatened by a group that calls itself the Anti-Communist Alliance.

Two days after parliament opened the way for his impeachment, President Abdurrahman Wahid appeared on television in an apparent bid to win over the Indonesian people. But his vague, five-minute speech failed to address accusations of corruption and incompetence. He also made no mention of a second parliamentary censure this week that brings him closer to impeachment. Angry lawmakers dismissed Wahid's comments.

President Abdurrahman Wahid, Indonesia's erratic leader, was censured by parliament Monday for the second time, paving the way for his possible impeachment and removal from office. By a vote of 363 to 52, parliament approved a motion censuring Gus Dur, as the president is popularly known, for his role in two graft scandals. The move could lead to his ouster by August.

Two small explosions occurred during an otherwise peaceful Islamic prayer rally in support of beleaguered Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid. At least seven people were injured when two small glass bottles containing an undetermined chemical exploded within seconds of one another near a tightly guarded area filled with 30,000 Wahid supporters, police said. There were no claims of responsibility for the attack at the rally in Jakarta, the capital.

Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid vowed to stay in office despite the near certainty that parliament will censure him next week for the second time over corruption allegations, a move that would open the door for impeachment. Wahid called for calm as thousands of his angry supporters arrived in Jakarta, the capital, ahead of a planned mass Islamic prayer rally Sunday and the censure vote Monday.